HSE Business Plan 2016/17

01 Apr 2016

HSE will continue to take its responsibility as the prime mover, working with co-regulators, colleagues across government and other stakeholders to deliver healthier, safer workplaces. This plan outlines what HSE, in our role as the national regulato...

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The news articles accessible on the Health Well website have been compiled from various sources that are not controlled by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH). IPH is therefore not responsible for the content of external websites and the inclusion of a link to an external website from the Health Well should not be understood to be an endorsement of that website.

A CONSULTATION report on developing a Healthy Workplace Framework has been published by the Department of Health (ROI).

The report was prepared for the Department of Health by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH).

IPH facilitated the online consultation and hosted events in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Sligo which invited stakeholders to share their views and experience on creating a healthy workplace.

The consultation report will now be considered by the Department to inform the development of the Healthy Workplace Framework, which is expected to be published later in 2019.

The aim of the Framework is to recognise and enhance existing initiatives, to facilitate the sharing of experience and learning, and also provide the necessary supports and tools for organisations or companies who haven’t yet developed their own resources.

The Framework sits under Healthy Ireland and is intended to provide a supportive, flexible, evidence-based structure that can be applied across all workplaces in Ireland regardless of their sector or size.

IPH is continuing to support the Department with this important Framework in the areas of policy design, implementation and monitoring

A report prepared for the Department of Health in Northern Ireland by the Institute of Public Health in Ireland (IPH)

The report was commissioned to support the Department of Health in Northern Ireland’s drug and alcohol strategy review.

IPH’s Director of Policy Helen McAvoy said: “Drug and alcohol-related harms continue to escalate across the island of Ireland and the UK. These harms threaten the wellbeing of individuals as well as their families and communities, particularly those living in social disadvantage."

Findings from the review were presented at the European Alcohol Policy Conference held in Edinburgh in 2018

Plan S Briefing Session

The National Open Research Forum (NORF) in conjunction with the Royal Irish Academy, will host a meeting on Tuesday 22 January 2018 about Plan S - an EU wide initiative to make open access publishing a reality.

The session will raise awareness of Science Europe’s “Plan S” and its implications for Irish researchers seeking European Union funding post 1 January 2020. It will brief the research community on the work of the National Open Research Forum and IReL in positioning Ireland to engage with open research and the open access agenda. It will also invite researchers’ views to inform the development of Ireland’s national response to the Plan S consultation, and to inform next steps nationally.

Speakers:

Dr. Gemma Irvine, Head of Policy and Strategic Planning, HEA, will chair this event and give an overview of the issues at hand.

Cathal McCauley, Maynooth University, will discuss IReL and the need for change in scholarly publishing.

Dr. Patricia Clarke, HRB, will give the national policy context for the introduction of Plan S and the options being considered.

Marion Boland, SFI, will outline the benefits of engaging with Plan S.

Prof. Luke Drury, MRIA, will discuss the ALLEA (All European Academies) response to Plan S and perspectives of the European research community.

Spaces are limited so please email policy@ria.ie now to reserve your place at this session.

A new website for parents, containing information and advice on pregnancy and the first 3 years of your child’s life. The site was created after research with parents and parents-to-be across Ireland.

Your guide to pregnancy, baby and toddler health

Trusted information from experts

Health services and support

Designed for parents, by parents

Over 4,000 parents took part in an online public survey - 20% of them were expecting a baby. Face-to-face research was also carried out. These parents included those at different stages of pregnancy and parenthood.

A NEW report on tackling childhood obesity has been published by the Joint Oireachtas Children and Youth Affairs Committee.

The report contains over twenty recommendations that relate to a whole systems approach (Recommendation 1) that will help schools, communities and families make healthier choices for young people. These cover:

Addressing socio-economic inequalities

Promoting sports and physical activity

Specific school–based initiatives

Amendments to regulations in respect to advertising and marketing in broadcast and non-broadcast media

Increased support for breastfeeding in Ireland

Research and measures to protect children and young people against potential links between obesity, mental health and portrayal af body image in social and traditional media

Results of Health Ireland 2018 Survey, with a focus on health inequalities, released today.

Healthy Ireland Survey is an annual survey of the health and wellbeing of the Irish population. The data from the Survey provides an up-to-date picture of the nation’s health. The results tell us how healthy or unhealthy Ireland currently is.

Ipsos MRBI, on behalf of the Department of Health, carried out the latest wave, wave 4 of the survey in 2017/18.

The survey provides and reports on current and credible data in order to enhance the monitoring and assessment of the various policy initiatives under the Healthy Ireland Framework

The Survey found that:

• Those in more deprived areas are less likely to rate their health as good or very good, and more likely to have a long-term health problem

• Those in more deprived areas are also more likely to smoke and binge drink

• Self-rated good health declines earlier for men in deprived areas (around the age of 55 to 64) than it does for both men in affluent areas and women in deprived areas

• Women living in more deprived areas are more likely than those in affluent areas to continue smoking and binge drinking into their 50s

A considerable amount of data is collected on a regular basis about health and social care services in Ireland.

It is vital that there is confidence and trust in the quality of this data and information in order to support the provision of safe and efficient health and social care to patients and service users.

HIQA has recently published The Data Quality Guidance, along with a Background paper and an interactive version of the Data Quality Assessment Tool in relation to a Data Quality Framework for health and social care.

An animation on the importance of data quality has also been developed.

There were 223 episodes of self-harm involving 138 individuals recorded in Irish prisons last year, according to a new report.

The first report on episodes of self-harm recorded in Irish Prisons found the annual person-based rate of self-harm was 4 per 100 prisoners. The rate of self-harm was higher among female prisoners and those on remand. In 2017, there were four episodes of self-harm (2% of all self-harm episodes) which resulted in the loss of life.